104 / Wicked Problems / David O’Hara

This is my second interview with David O'Hara, and as with the first, conversing with him is always a delight and a great pleasure. In this episode, we discussed his trip to Central America, and the recent archaeological discovery of a vast Mayan metropolis that "at its peak some 1,500 years ago, covered an area about twice the size of medieval England, with an estimated population of around five million." David describes the cutting-edge technology that is now being used to discover these, until very recently, hidden ruins of an ancient Mayan civilization, and what we can learn from these discoveries regarding our own civilization.  We also get into the ethics of artificial intelligence and the corporate control of the development of computer technology, and the implications this has for how information is disseminated through our society. David discusses some of the underlying issues on relying on algorithms and computer learning to make big decisions for us, and how this kind of thinking leads to unintended outcomes.  // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/david-ohara-2 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast